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Federal Housing Dollars in Lansing: The Network Around the LHC

Rhinoceros NewsroomApr 26, 202631 min

Roughly $200 million in federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits flow through LHC's Lansing-area development pipeline, plus federal voucher subsidies for 2,252 households. The pipeline moves through a small cluster of nonprofit, private, and law-firm entities and a recurring set of individuals who hold multiple roles across them. LHC Board Chair Emma Henry earns $123,787 a year as Executive Director of Capital Area Housing Partnership, the nonprofit named as partner on LHC LIHTC deals her board approves. Commissioner Ashlee Barker is paid Vice President at Cinnaire, the financial institution the LHC executive director identified as the standing purchaser of LHC's tax credits. The 2024 LHC board minutes record one Henry abstention out of fifteen-plus substantive resolutions, and zero Barker recusals across eight 2024 board meetings.

GovernmentHousing

Public Housing Commission Conflict-of-Interest Standards

Rhinoceros NewsroomApr 26, 2026

Federal and Michigan rules that govern conflicts of interest on a public housing commission cluster around four authorities: HUD's mixed-finance development standard at 24 CFR §905.604, the federal-award procurement standard at 2 CFR §200.318(c), Michigan's public officer conflict statute at MCL 15.321 et seq., and the Lansing Housing Commission's own bylaws. Each rule names a specific prohibited conduct, a required disclosure or recusal, and a specific body authorized to act when conditions covered by the rule appear in the public record. HUD's Office of Public Housing Investments (working through the HUD Detroit Field Office for Michigan) and the Michigan Attorney General's Public Integrity Unit hold the federal and state authority respectively.

HousingGovernment

What Is the Lansing Housing Commission?

Rhinoceros NewsroomApr 26, 2026

The Lansing Housing Commission is the City of Lansing's public housing authority, chartered in 1964 under MCL 125.651 and governed by a five-member volunteer board appointed by the Mayor. As of 2025 LHC operates 66 public-housing units (down from 833 in 2020), administers 2,252 federal Section 8 vouchers and 253 project-based vouchers, and acts as development partner on a Low-Income Housing Tax Credit pipeline of more than $200 million in active project cost. Three of the people sitting in LHC's governance hold paid positions at organizations that earn fees from LHC's deals: Board Chair Emma Henry at Capital Area Housing Partnership ($123,787/year per its FY2025 IRS Form 990), Commissioner Ashlee Barker at Cinnaire (the standing purchaser of LHC's tax credits), and Executive Director Doug Fleming as agent of the General Partner LLCs collecting developer fees on LHC LIHTC partnerships.

MoneyHousing

LHC Executive Director's Five LLCs

Rhinoceros NewsroomApr 26, 2026

The Lansing Housing Commission's executive director, Doug Fleming, is the registered agent and organizing member of at least five private Michigan business entities, four of them registered at the LHC office at 419 Cherry Street. Two are general-partner LLCs — Oliver Gardens GP, LLC and 220 Kalamazoo GP, LLC — that collect developer fees on Low-Income Housing Tax Credit partnerships in which LHC is the limited partner. On August 22, 2025, in a single LARA filing, Fleming signed the formation documents for Oliver Gardens II LDHA LP twice: once on behalf of Oliver Gardens GP, LLC (which he had organized one day earlier) and once on behalf of LHC. The partnership received $1,479,466 in federal LIHTC in October 2025.

HousingMoney

From Public Housing to Wall Street Mortgages: The Lansing Scattered-Site Sale

Rhinoceros NewsroomApr 25, 2026

In April 2023, the Lansing Housing Commission completed the sale of 202 scattered-site public-housing homes to a Michigan LLC formed thirteen months earlier, for $14.62 million across four closings. The buyer was renamed from SK Investments Group LLC to Red Michigan Holdings LLC eight months before the first closing, breaking name-based searches. Within nine months, $8.73 million in mortgages were assigned through Goldman Sachs to U.S. Bank Trust as trustee of Legacy Mortgage Asset Trust 2024.

Housing

Lansing's Public Housing: From 833 Units to 66

Rhinoceros NewsroomApr 25, 2026

Between 2020 and 2024, the Lansing Housing Commission's public-housing portfolio collapsed from 833 units to 66, a 92 percent reduction. 202 of those former public-housing homes were sold to a single Michigan LLC for $14.62 million across four closings between April 2023 and February 2025. The buyer's name was changed from "SK Investments Group LLC" to "Red Michigan Holdings LLC" eight months before the first closing, breaking name-based searches. Of about 40 interested tenants, 8 qualified.

Housing

Five Patterns Inside Lansing's Housing Crisis

Rhinoceros NewsroomApr 24, 2026

Five patterns repeat across Lansing's rental market: code-violation fines below one month's rent, eviction filings used as routine business activity, mass eviction immediately preceding a profitable sale, holding-company fragmentation hiding operator-scale portfolios behind small LLCs, and code enforcement that stops at every municipal line. Three Lansing-area registered agents account for at least 488 rental parcels across 84 LLCs, and one landlord with 18 code cases has not lost a license.

HousingGovernment

Lansing's Homeowner Permit Rule for Tagged Structures

Rhinoceros NewsroomApr 22, 2026

On January 9, 2026, the Lansing Building Safety Office issued a two-page administrative policy barring homeowners from pulling repair permits on red-tagged property until a licensed contractor removes the tag. The City Council never voted on it, the policy is not posted on the city's Building Safety or Permits pages, and Code Compliance did not provide a written copy to Council Member Spadafore through at least the April 16, 2026 Public Safety Committee meeting. Detroit allows homeowner repairs.

GovernmentHousing

The Shuffle Lease Does Not Oblige the City to Sell

Rhinoceros NewsroomApr 22, 2026

At the April 20, 2026 Committee of the Whole, Lansing City Attorney Greg Venker confirmed on the record that paragraph (f) of the 2020 Lansing Shuffle lease does not obligate the City Council to sell the building. Council Member Ryan Kost read aloud the lease provision that "initiation of such proceedings by the City is not a promise or covenant that sale of the Building and Premises will result," and Venker confirmed: "Correct, that a prior council had bound them to."

Housing

Lansing's Housing Crisis: Homeowners

Rhinoceros NewsroomApr 5, 2026

Lansing has the highest property tax rate in Ingham County at 62.6 mills, 12 to 24 percent higher than any surrounding jurisdiction. Homes that sold for under $50,000 are assessed at 188 percent of their sale-price-based value, nearly twice what Michigan's statutory formula allows, while homes over $200,000 are assessed at 91 percent. 40 percent of Lansing homeowners do not earn enough to cover housing and basic needs, and the median sale price rose 37 percent in five years.

Housing

Lansing's Housing Crisis: By the Tract

Rhinoceros NewsroomApr 1, 2026

Lansing's 17 lowest-income census tracts, each with median household income under $50,000, are 52.5 percent nonwhite on average with a 51.7 percent hardship rate, and 15 of 17 are classified as food-apartheid areas. The five highest-income tracts are 28 percent nonwhite with a 26.6 percent hardship rate. The single D-grade redlined tract from the federal HOLC's 1935 Lansing map today has a median income of $41,495, a 56.6 percent nonwhite population, and a 66.7 percent hardship rate.

Housing

Lansing's Housing Crisis: Wages Fall Short

Rhinoceros NewsroomApr 1, 2026

Lansing's two largest low-wage occupation groups, food service and personal care, pay $16.73 to $17.16 per hour at median, while a single adult needs $21.74 per hour to cover housing and basic needs. Roughly 65,000 metro-area workers, nearly a third of local employment, work in occupations whose median wages do not clear the threshold for any household with children. 22,000 Ingham County households held medical debt in collections until the county spent $250,000 to erase it in 2024.

Housing

Lansing's Housing Crisis: Renters

Rhinoceros NewsroomApr 1, 2026

70 percent of Lansing renter households do not earn enough to cover housing and basic needs using a residual-income measure that counts food, transportation, medical, childcare, and utilities. Single-parent renter families with two or three children fall below the threshold at 95 to 97 percent. Lansing rents have risen 25.3 percent since January 2022, faster than any other Michigan metro, and the federal 30 percent cost-burden standard undercounts Lansing renter stress by 18 points.

HousingMoney

Who Owns Lansing? 24 Entities Control 946 Rental Parcels

Rhinoceros NewsroomMar 13, 2026

Of Lansing's 42,175 tax parcels, 29.2 percent of residential parcels are non-owner-occupied and 10.4 percent of those rental-proxy parcels are owned by someone in another state. Twenty-four mega-landlords with 20 or more parcels each control 946 parcels (8.3 percent of all rental-proxy housing). The largest single residential landlord is SK Lansing LDHA, a Southfield entity holding 209 parcels acquired from the Lansing Housing Commission. California leads at 308, Florida 193, Texas 67.

Housing

Lansing Is Now Michigan's Fastest-Rising Rental Market

Rhinoceros NewsroomMar 13, 2026

Four independent data sources, Zillow, HUD, the Census ACS, and Realtor.com, confirm Lansing's rents are rising faster than any other metro in Michigan. Zillow's Observed Rent Index shows Lansing rents up 25.3 percent since January 2022, ahead of Grand Rapids (21.1 percent), Ann Arbor (19.2 percent), and Detroit (16.9 percent). HUD's Fair Market Rents recorded a 12.5 percent single-year jump in Ingham County's two-bedroom rate, and three Lansing ZIP codes show double-digit annual increases.

Federal Housing Dollars in Lansing: The Network Around the LHC

Rhinoceros NewsroomApr 26, 202631 min